How successful was Russian foreign policy from the Peace of Paris to its renunciation in 1871?

“I understand only one policy,” announced Tsar Alexander III, “to exact from every situation all that is needed by and is useful to Russia…We can have no other policy except one that is purely Russian and national; this is the only policy we can and must follow.”(1) The decades between the Treaty of Paris in 1856 that ended the Crimean War to the renunciation of the treaty’s terms...

In 1814, the Russian emperor, Tsar Alexander I, entered the gates of Paris behind his brigades of marching Cossacks, with crowds lining the streets shouting ““Vive l’empéreur Alexandre!”(1) As the Russian army swept across Europe on the heels of Napoleon’s Grande Armee, all were overawed by its might and power. In the post 1815 world, Russia gained unprecedented prestige for its part in defeating Napoleonic France(2)....